UK Covid-19 Inquiry - Module 1 report: progress update - July 2025

8. Regular reporting

Recommendation Eight – Published reports on whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience

Chair’s recommendation:

The governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each produce and publish reports to their respective legislatures at least every three years on whole-system civil emergency preparedness and resilience. The reports should include as a minimum:

• The risks that each government has identified are likely to result in whole-system civil emergencies
• The recommendations that have been made to each government to mitigate those risks, and whether these recommendations have been accepted or rejected
• A cost–benefit analysis setting out the economic and social costs of accepting the risks as against taking action to mitigate the risks
• Who may be vulnerable to the risks and what steps are being taken to mitigate those risks
• A plan setting out the timescales for implementing the recommendations that have been accepted and
• An update on the progress that has been made on implementing previously accepted recommendations.

Implementation actions and timescales set out in our January 2025 response:

• We will lay our first report before the Scottish Parliament during September 2025, with further reports to follow at least every three years.

Progress update:

• The Scottish Government remains committed to providing a report to parliament every three years, setting out the improvements made to the resilience landscape. The first of these reports will be provided in September 2025.